TIME Magazine: TIME 100: Condoleezza Rice


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Condoleezza Rice

Leaders & Revolutionaries
	George W. Bush Hu Jintao Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva Ali Sistani Toshihiko Fukui Abu al-Zarqawi Kofi Annan Condoleezza Rice Recep Tayyip Erdogan John Abizaid Kim Jong Il Bill Gates Pope John Paul II Atal Bihari Vajpayee John Kerry Luisa Diogo Vladmir Putin Wu Yi Osama bin Laden The Clintons
	Builders & Titans Artists & Entertainers Scientists & Thinkers Heroes & Icons Introduction Essay FROM THE ARCHIVE: Leaders & Revolutionaries from 1900-1999

The Power of Proximity

By MASSIMO CALABRESI

CHARLES DHARAPAK/AP

FROM THE TIME ARCHIVE

	Condi Rice Can't Lose George W. Bush's foreign-policy adviser is a future superstar. But can she save Bush from himself? [9/27/1999]

As George W. Bush's National Security Adviser, Condoleezza Rice spends more time with the President than anyone else in the West Wing. But her clout is more the product of experience than ideology. In the early days of Bush's term, she tutored the President and quietly helped set his priorities. More recently, she has taken the lead on several make-or-break challenges, from reviving the moribund Arab-Israeli peace plan to overseeing arrangements for handing over power in Iraq. Though others may call the shots, Rice's proximity to power has made her the foreign-policy voice of the White House.

Her quick ascendancy surprised no one who knew her well. She served in George H.W. Bush's Administration as an expert on the Soviets and arms control, earning the admiration of Bush 41 and Brent Scowcroft. She was Stanford's provost during the Clinton years and quietly worked her way into George W. Bush's inner circle in the late 1990s. She has had trouble since then bridging the deep divide between the Bush team's hard-liners and moderates, but if she has challenged Dick Cheney or Donald Rumsfeld in intramural arguments, she has been careful not to allow those differences to become public. Her recent appearance before the 9/11 commission received mostly positive reviews, partly because she so deftly sidestepped criticism of her own mistakes. She will have her pick of Cabinet posts in a second Bush term; she can go to either State or Defense if either Colin Powell or Rumsfeld departs. How Bush will manage without her in the White House is another question.

April 5, 2004 Nov. 22, 1954 Aug. 8, 1960

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